Aadivasi Aarogyam

Tribal Welfare Department is implementing various programs for the development of scheduled tribes, among them, promoting education is the major activity. The Tribal Welfare Department is running Ashram Schools, Residential Institutions and Govt. Primary Schools with an objective to provide better and quality educational facilities to ST students and thereby to improve the literacy among STs. A total of 2 Lakh students are studying in these institutions. These institutions are spread over (13) districts of Andhra Pradesh covering all ST children in the state

As per the recent survey conducted by the Comprehensive School Health Programme on predefined conditions in tribal areas the Health situation/conditions is very poor. It is found that 76% are diagnosed under this category and 11% are coming under referral, which is alarming. The reasons found to be non-safe drinking water, un-healthy life styles, poor diet and nutrition. Most of the children are diagnosed positive under predefined conditions which results in school drop out. To counter this Tribal Welfare Department has initiated to improve quality Health and Education to reduce OOPE (Out Of Pocket Expenditure) to implement Comprehensive (Pregnancy- 18 Yrs) in coordination with Health, WDCW & Education Dept, thereby Inclusive of Development from 1. Maternal,2. WD&CW,3. RBSK, 4. SSA, 5. RMSA & 6. RKSKIn spite of taking all the necessary steps, as internalizing the provisions of the schemes are slow in tribal areas, the performance of health status in tribal areas is not up to expectations

In this regard, a Comprehensive School Health Program is launched on 2ndOctober, 2016 in Tribal Welfare Department head quarters at Vijayawada

Every year there are several incidents of tribal deaths in the agency areas ofAndhra Pradesh due to various health reasons. One of the major reason for thedeath of the ST students studying in Tribal Welfare Educational Institutions isdue to various types of anemia viz., 23 % children are critical anemic (i.e., <8mg>) and 65% children are anemic (i.e., <8mg><11mg>)